Penthouse additions keep sprouting in the Meatpacking District

Left: After a failed plan to put a hotel on top of Chelsea Market, the developer now intends to create a 330,000-square-foot addition consisting of office space. Right: The structure atop 345 Meatpacking at 345 West 14th Street was part of the original design.

From the January issue:From the very beginning of urban coexistence (or at least from the moment when mankind came up with the bright idea of living somewhere other than the ground floor of a one-story structure) there has been the temptation to build up, to maximize the profits from one’s real estate, or, in the words of C. Gilbert, an early theoretician of the skyscraper, writing in 1900, “to make the land pay.” [more]